Kristena Eden

Teaching our children to be self-reliant learners

By Kristena Eden

August 05, 2022 10:00 AM MDT

One of the greatest principles the Church teaches us is to be more self-reliant, which includes increasing our education in all areas of life.

1 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

2 Ways to Help You Become a Self-Reliant Learner in Time for the New Curriculum

By Kristena Eden

December 22, 2018 02:00 PM MST

Recently, the Church announced a new approach to worship, with an emphasis on making gospel learning more self-reliant and family-focused. As with any change, we can become overwhelmed at first. So to help make this change just a little easier, here are a few techniques on how to be a self-reliant learner.

5 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

9 Ways to Control Your Anger Instead of Letting It Control You

By Kristena Eden

November 26, 2018 07:24 PM MST

Anger is a very powerful emotion and can be a very destructive one. If we let it, it can completely take control of our judgment, leading us down a path we should not follow. Is there such a thing as righteous anger or does anger altogether cause our downfall? Take a moment and think about times that you felt anger. Can you pinpoint what became of that moment? It is easy to feel defensive, insulted, betrayed, or disrespected, which in turn triggers our fight, flight, or freeze reactions and often leads to anger. Reacting in anger can cause us to make poor choices, yet we need to remember that we always have two options: Choosing the natural man, or choosing a God-like response. Here is the difference and a few things you can do to better manage angry responses:

4 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

10 Ways to Make Your Life the Best It Can Be

By Kristena Eden

October 25, 2018 01:33 PM MDT

The world around us is full of opportunities. The hard part is choosing the right opportunities for us. How many times do you have to choose between two good things? Will trying them all make you truly happy or which opportunities will get you where you truly should be? On the other hand, we sometimes fear the opportunities and the possibility of failure, which will stop our progress. So how do we balance our thoughts and our desire, so that we can make better choices that can lead us to our true purpose?

5 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

3 Principles for a Happier Marriage

By Kristena Eden

September 19, 2018 03:39 PM MDT

How frustrating is it when we find out that the love of our life is really human? Many times, we think marriage is about marrying the right person, so when there’s a problem that arises, we may wonder if we married the wrong person. The truth is not that we marry the “right” person, but that we marry a compatible person striving to do the right things. Marriage is a work in progress involving spirals, sometimes feeling shortchanged, and seeing personal attributes of our spouse not previously recognized.

6 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

The Real Reason We're Here on Earth

By Kristena Eden

August 21, 2018 12:13 PM MDT

When discussing the purpose of life, we often hear the mantra “we are here to be tested,” but how many of us cringe at that thought? So few of us want to feel like a kid again sitting in a classroom taking a test on things we don’t remember, we don’t understand, and we can’t leave until we finish. Comparing life to a test can be a downer and not the inspirational mantra that it should be. But if we look at life as a lesson we learn from over and over again as more things become clear, we can gain the inspiration we need to improve. We didn’t learn algebra before we learned addition. Life can be viewed as a continual learning process, not the end test. It’s more about what we are learning and becoming than about having all the right answers.

6 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

Building a Celestial Marriage at Any Stage

By Kristena Eden

July 18, 2018 02:00 PM MDT

Love is one of the most profound emotions known to human beings. Most of us marry feeling that nothing could possibly separate us, believing that a celestial marriage will be perfect and easy—a happily ever after. Yet life is not that way and we face the harsh reality of conflict where our perfect happiness can be shattered. What will save our happily ever after is to realize is that life and marriage evolve in stages. Our marriage probably won’t ever be like it was at the beginning nor should it, because it could be something even better. Our purpose in marriage is to help each other meet the Savior, and our spouse can be our greatest purifying fire, our greatest teacher, and our greatest gift—if we will allow them to be.

7 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

3 Ways to Find Healing After Broken Relationships

By Kristena Eden

June 16, 2018 02:00 PM MDT

When we have a broken heart, we often avoid feeling the pain—whether it is a divorce, a breakup, or even a job loss. We fill our lives with busywork to get through the pain, but there’s no easy way out of those overwhelming empty feelings. We need time to grieve and accept the heartache; otherwise, it will heal very slowly or not at all. Experts recommend we go through the emotional pain, not around it. By learning to deal with these emotions, we become stronger people and more capable of handling our trials.

5 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

You Are Enough: How We Can Improve Our Relationship with God by Trusting Him and Ourselves

By Kristena Eden

May 03, 2018 05:05 PM MDT

A recently married couple shared everything they had, even their passwords to their emails. While this was initially a sign of trust, over time they gave into the fear most couples have and began asking themselves “Is my spouse faithful?” Instead of trusting their partner, they began checking each other’s emails and phones when the other was not looking for indications of unfaithfulness. Yes, there are times, when prompted to do this. Yet is this done because of lacking trust in self or in the other. And inevitably you find what you are looking for. When you only dwell on one idea, you become that idea. In this case, one partner cheated and the other found out and cheated too, just to get even. Their trust diminished and replaced with fear.

6 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

4 Ways LDS Singles Can Thrive in a Family Ward

By Kristena Eden

April 03, 2018 08:55 AM MDT

I often hear that single people want to be married and married people want to be single. Life seems so much easier on the other side of the fence. We often only see the other sides’ finished product or the public appearance, not what really goes on behind the scenes.

8 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

7 Ways to Help Your Kids Become Strong and Independent in the Gospel

By Kristena Eden

May 01, 2017 09:52 AM MDT

Good parents give their children roots and wings: roots to know where home is and who they are and wings to fly off and practice what has been taught them. This is the contradiction of parenting—juggling the act between setting limits while simultaneously encouraging independence or ultimately teaching them the gospel and allowing them the freedom to live it.

7 Min Read

Latter-day Saint Life

3 Important Lessons from Joseph Smith to Teach Our Children

By Kristena Eden

January 05, 2017 10:00 PM MST

As faithful parents, we want to instill in our children principles that will guide them to reach their potential and find eternal happiness. We want them to have strong convictions of truth and be prepared to handle life. Yet to effectively teach all of that, we have to be that image as well.

4 Min Read